But it is much broader than the one between China Unicom and China Telecom – a partnership between equals that is limited to construction and capacity sharing.

For China Mobile and CBN, joint network investment and construction at a 1:1 ratio is just one part of their arrangement, which will continue until 2031.

They will jointly own and share the capacity, but China Mobile has committed to wholesaling capacity on its 2.6GHz 5G network to its smaller partner.

In areas where the 700MHz band is not yet commercially available, it will open up its 2G and 4G networks.

Additionally, the telco will also provide a series of key services on a commercial basis: network maintenance and operations, backhaul and international services.

China Mobile's statement said while the two partners would retain their own brands, they would explore further joint efforts in areas such as products, operations and content and even in "channels and customer services."

For China Mobile, which already has 260MHz of 5G spectrum in the 2.6GHz and 4.9GHz bands, the partnership adds to its spectrum inventory and in particular access to precious low-band frequencies.

It also means potential for valuable content partnerships with the country's national cable TV operator.

The downside is that the telco giant is yet again footing the bill for a national policy exercise. It funded the development of China's 3G technology. Now it must put its hand in its pocket to build a network that in part duplicates its existing 5G deployment.